Hilton Head

Posted Feb 13, 2026

By Steve Foley 2 min read

In February of 2026, Paul rented a place in Hilton Head South Carolina for two months. Kristin and I visited him for a few days.

We were sitting by the pool reading and I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, the shadowy figure of a rather large bird fly overhead. Scanning the trees in the direction in which it was headed, I spotted what appeared to be a hawk sitting on a branch about 75 feet away, so I went back inside the place and grabbed my camera, but when I got back out and sat in my chair he was gone. I scanned all the trees in that direction very carefully looking for it in the distance, but was unable to find it . . . just my luck. As I began to put my camera down and go back to reading my book I noticed him sitting, just 10 feet away, on top of a lamp post! I have never seen a hawk that close up before. Red-shouldered Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk

On Friday morning I looked at Google Maps and tried to figure out where the best place to take some sunrise pics would be. I pinpointed Fish Haul Beach on the north end of the island and headed there. It turns out this is a popular spot for birders. I ran into a British chap that gave me a rundown on the area and told me this beach was the best spot on the island for pictures. He sees birds from all over the country here at Fish Haul, they fly down from as far away as the Midwest, and when he spots them he calls up someone out there and reports it so they know where all their birds are flying to.

The beach has some interesting tide pools and such, as well as a lot of birds. Unfortunately, I stupidly had my camera in jpeg mode instead of raw, so a lot of the landscape photos I took didn’t make the cut.